Fan Zhongyan was fighting against Yushitai on the one hand, Han Qi on the other, and fighting with officials all over the world. Three hard knocks, to operate on the Song Dynasty! That's where he gets hurt and what he achieves. But alas, he still missed the point! In fact, instead of a three-sided confrontation, he had four enemies, and the most important one, the one he didn't expect at all, was the key to the success or failure of his entire new policy: the emperor!

May I ask where you put the emperor? This sentence really should gather the gentlemen of the New Deal and line up to ask them one by one. Because from the perspective of history, they have not thought about it.

Back to Teng Zongliang and Zhang Kang were degraded. It's not that simple! Do you still remember the mistakes made by the first general Cao Bin back then? He gave his own money to the soldiers. This is a capital offense through and through! Do you want the soldiers to only remember you? Teng, Zhang, and Zhu are all guilty of this problem! With only tens of thousands of dollars, any official in Kaifeng City can take it out, and it is impossible to have an impact on the grand Song Dynasty treasury! Disposing of them is a warning to the gentlemen! It's a pity that Fan Zhongyan and the others didn't notice it at all. Hence the famous conversation on April 7.

On that day, Emperor Renzong gathered all the high-ranking officials of the two governments, the two systems, the Imperial Historical Observatory, and the Zhiyuan together, and said a sentence: "Everyone, Aiqing, it has always been a small person who forms a party, is it true that a gentleman also forms a party?" To whom? This is more than just an ordinary question! First, the emperor defined the character of the person who formed the party - the small person formed the party. Second, gentlemen, the "gentlemen" present have also formed a party. So what are you? This is a slap in the face of Fan Zhongyan, Ouyang Xiu, Han Qi, Fu Bi and others in public! I gave you face, but you don't want it! I have to make it clear! This is not an implicit suggestion, let alone a kind exhortation, but a public warning and rebuke!

It stands to reason that Fan Zhongyan and others should immediately bow their heads and admit their guilt and honestly admit their mistakes. Because this is what the emperor said, and he also quoted the supreme teaching of Sage Confucius - gentlemen do not form parties!

But Fan Zhongyan and others are not! They pushed the emperor back on the spot. Fan Zhongyan personally came forward to answer: When the minister was at the border, he saw brave people forming a party. Cowardly people also formed a party, and this is also the case in the court today. How can people who are bent on good do good in a party be harmful to the country?

On the same day, the monarch and the ministers parted unhappily. The Jia Chang Dynasty must be very satisfied, the emperor and the new politicians are angry, and after there is a disagreement, it is the emperor who is taught a lesson! Can you imagine?

Ouyang Xiu, the dean of the Zhiyuan and a great talent, returned home and decided to teach the little emperor. So he gave full play to his strengths and wrote a good article that will be famous for eternity, and at the same time threw himself and the "gentlemen" onto the cliff. After that, it will be eternal, immortal, and mournful...

"The ministers have heard the words of their friends since ancient times, but fortunately the king distinguishes his gentleman and villain. Gentlemen and gentlemen are friends with the same way. The villain and the villain, with the same benefit as friends..."That's right! The famous "Theory of Friends"! In essence, this is a case-overturning article, Your Majesty's central argument is that "gentlemen are not parties", but I just want to refute you! It proves that the gentleman has friends and that friends are useful. All you need to do is "quit the villain's hypocrisy." With the true friend of the gentleman, "Drive away except us!" Then the world will be peaceful!

We should be able to clearly perceive Zhao Zhen's feelings: You guys are right to form gangs? To govern the country, I just need to drive everyone else away, and everything will be OK with just you? Right? Then what do you want me to do as an emperor? Who is the world? Is it true that a gentleman is virtuous, and a virtuous person lives in the world? That's what you guys think, right?

And "On Friends" was handed in a few days ago. Ouyang Xiu wrote a few more chapters one after another, he was the most excited person in the world at that time, urging the emperor several times a day, he was really worried about the country and the people - Fan Zhongyan and Fu Bi gave you the idea. Have you complied with them all? Gotta hurry! The whole world is stretching their necks and waiting, do you have to let them stretch their necks into your house before they can do it? And you have to pay attention: there will be all kinds of villains jumping out to make it difficult to find faults. You have to stand firm. Unite around the two gentlemen, Fan and Fu, don't waver, after a long time, you will naturally see the results. No matter how big or small, Fan and Fu have thought of it for the emperor, you just need to do it. If you don't, what do you want to do? Do you want to be in the company of villains and be a mediocre person?

Zhao Zhen's heart was further depressed, "advancing and retreating" sages, it turned out to be like this... At the same time, all the courtiers in the Great Song Dynasty were looking in the mirror with quotations in their hands. According to Ouyang Dacaizi's "Theory of Friends", what are we? Gentleman? Don't be too thick-skinned, people won't take you to play, don't get too close! Villain? Why do we say that we are villains? Each of us is an official who has been in the ten-year cold window examination for a jinshi, and then worked up the qualifications step by step, from childhood to adulthood! You are a descendant, but the pen is hard, so you spoil us?

Not to mention them, even other high-ranking officials in the two mansions, such as Zhang Dexiang, Du Yan, Yan Shu, Jia Changchao and even Han Qi, are also gritting their teeth, and the gentlemen are subdivided, Han Qi and Yin Zhu have no share! In this way, the situation was formed: after Ouyang Xiu's passionate and unremitting efforts, Fan Zhongyan and Fu Bi were finally isolated! And the two of them are the actual promoters of the New Deal!

As each day passes, the enemies of the New Deal increase! Later, even the eunuchs of the palace joined, and they left a very affordable sentence in the history books, I believe that anyone who listens to it will be worried: Your Majesty, one person will form a party, at most a dozen people, and five or six people will form a party, that is, seventy or eighty people. Fan Zhongyan, Fu Bi, Han Qi, Ouyang Xiu, Yu Jing, Cai Xiang, Yin Zhu, how many people are this? What's more, in their new policy, the method of electing officials is to "recommend the responsibility system," and they can brazenly elect people to form a party. Within two or three years, the court and outside the court will be full of their people!

The situation is bad, the hearts of the people are sinister... Zhao Zhen couldn't help but sigh in his heart. What to do? This group of people is about to endanger the country, can they still be tossed by them? Bring them to justice now! This is a perfectly normal reaction. But Zhao Zhen didn't. He still held his breath, still remembering that he had chosen these people to be officials in the first place.

Here, Zhao Zhen is worried. Over there, Yelu Zongzhen was also depressed. There are many Dangxiang people in Liao, and like the familiar households of the Dangxiang clan in the Song Dynasty, they have been raised for several generations, and they can be regarded as Liao. Residents are wealth, and Yelu Zongzhen is looking for money everywhere, so he naturally takes these very seriously. Li Yuanhao began to secretly recruit these people back, openly digging into the corners of Yelu Sect's real walls! 23rd. The king of the Southern Courtyard, Yelu Gao, said that the party department had rebelled against Western Xia. On the 25th, Luo Hannu and Hu Lu Mu played again: the Shanxi tribe made Qu Lie openly rebel with five tribes. So on May 1, Yelu Zongzhen sent Luohannu to lead an army to suppress it. Unexpectedly, Li Yuanhao openly sent troops across the border to support the rebellious party. defeated Luohan Nu, killed Xiao Puda and Zhang Fonu, and then moved back with the Liao party members, and staged the Western Xia version of the victorious escape...

This kind of thing has never happened in the 137 years since the founding of the Great Khitan! No matter what the reason, there is only one way to go: send troops to kill Li Yuanhao! If you don't kill, it's not enough to establish your authority, and if you don't kill, all the small countries around you will rise up and rebel!

And the three bigwigs of the Zhiyuan Sun Fu, Yu Jing, and Ouyang Xiu wrote to the emperor and came up with an idea. First of all, they unanimously support Fan Zhongyan. All his decisions were right! Shuiluo City will be repaired! But at this point, it is inevitable that the border will lose harmony. Let's play 50 boards each! It hurts on both sides, maybe it doesn't hurt at all?

They even came up with a specific solution for the emperor. You can send someone to say to Di Qing first, Liu Hu has an order to repair the city, and you are too reckless to arrest people. But if you let him go now, it will lower your prestige, which the court does not want to see. It's up to you to come forward and release him, and if he violates the military order again in the future, he can be punished by military law. On the other hand, he said to Liu Hu. If you don't listen to the general's orders, that's a sin. I miss that you have made meritorious contributions to repairing the city and working the frontier, so let Di Qing let you go, and you go to finish repairing Shuiluo City. It is regarded as atonement for sins. As for Yoon-so? He wasn't mentioned again. This is care in disguise, you just stay out of it, who let you have someone above you, and you have a big temper? Although it was a word to Di Qing. Everything is said to him!

On the 6th, Emperor Renzong sent Chen Weixin to re-urge the restoration of Shuiluo City.

On the 7th, Yelu Zongzhen mobilized the domestic army. Prepare to recruit Li Yuanhao.

On the 25th, in order to avoid fighting on two fronts, Li Yuanhao took the initiative to declare himself a vassal to the Great Song Dynasty as the lord of Xia.

The time enters the lunar month of June, and summer begins. On June 1, the emperor asked the ministers of the two governments and these "gentlemen" five questions: 1. Who should be used to guard the northwest? 2. The people's power is poor, and the financial endowment is not strong? 3 There are still many military horses, how can they be fine? 4. How to deal with the discord between the generals and ministers? 5 zealous people, should be plugged and competing?

Looking at these 5 questions, we imagine that we are Song Renzong, what kind of mood should we have? The new policy has been implemented for more than half a year, and it has almost no effect at all! May I ask you gentlemen, what do you eat?

The gentlemen did not dare to slack off, and immediately began to answer, as for what answered? It's too long, so let's just take an excerpt to see what the gentlemen are capable of:

Article 2 The people's strength is poor, and the financial endowment is not strong. Answer: "The ministers discussed it, and the state revolutionized the violence of the five generations of princes, seized their authority, and used them to support the soldiers of the world." The years are deep, the endowment is heavier, the side affairs are shrugging, the rate is hundred, and the people are poorer. Agricultural work is getting more and more reduced, there is no preparation for floods and droughts, taxes are not paid, and the number of reductions and releases is more than one million" This is already 83 words, what did you say? Summarize and explain the ins and outs of the problem. That is, the emperor asks them questions, and they refine them again and let the emperor read them again.

Next, the solution finally came to the solution: "Today, we will visit the election of good officials, ensure the safety of the people, repair the prevention of floods and droughts, and reap the benefits of heaven and earth." And the stricter order to encourage the peasants, so that the officials of the world focus on persuasion, the people are diligent in the crops, and in a few years, great benefits can be seen. The goods of the mountains and seas are inexhaustible, but the country changes its law lightly, and it is deeply taken from the people, and the merchants are not connected, and the money is self-trapped. and reduce the number of soldiers, and live within the limits of the means, then the period of prosperity and strength, the hope is to carry on" 138 words, do you see any specific methods? Have you seen the specific laws and regulations such as the "Seedling Law", "Equal Loss Law", "Farmland Water Conservancy Law", and "Exemption Law"? It's all empty talk, clichés, useless nonsense!

The other 4 articles are basically the same as this, so that Emperor Renzong can further see the quality of the "gentlemen" of the new deal!

On the 4th, Minister Obstruction presented a messenger from Li Yuanhao to Yelu Zongzhen, who was stationed in Yong'an Mountain, asking for help, and asked for troops to help in the war. Zong Zhen agreed, and sent Yelu Gao's slave to the Great Song Dynasty to inform the Liao generals of the Xia.

The city was built in June, and then quickly disappeared into history. It's not really useful! And Fan Zhongyan will continue to work for the New Deal during this time. It was at this time that the most famous dialogue in history about the Qingli New Deal arose:

He swung his pen and brushed a little bit, waving around the list of transit envoys, erasing the names one by one. Fu Bi next to him couldn't stand it, "You know that if you wave a pen and erase a name, there will be a family crying" That is to ruin the future of a person and a family. Is it easy to climb to the level of a provincial governor?

Fan Zhongyan didn't raise his head, "It's better for the family to cry, or it's better for people to cry all the way" This is the difference between Fan Zhongyan and Fu Bi. Fan Zhongyan got up from the lowest point in his life, as long as he had something to eat, he felt very beautiful. Therefore, he is not afraid of losing his official position, and he also demands others according to this standard. Fu Bi is different, he is a standard scholar, he must be a man with dignity and identity, and he can't hurt the dignity of others at any time...

These two lines of dialogue have been widely circulated in history and are used to beautify Fan Zhongyan's tall image. It's a pity that it's small but not big.

On the 15th, the thunder in Kaifeng City thundered, and the Lingbao Pagoda of Kaibao Temple was burned down by the fire. This is even more frightening than the drought a year ago. Everyone unanimously shot their eyes to the palace: Emperor, you must have committed another crime, tell me honestly! Of course, this is just the cry of the people in the bottom of their hearts, but the gentlemen of the New Deal have spoken it.

Yu Jing went to the palace of the Zhiyuan Academy, sweating like rain on a hot day, but he was fully dressed and told the emperor seriously. The central idea is only 8 words: "diligence and thrift, cultivating virtue, touching people's hearts", but the worst thing is that he chatted for more than two hours! Renzong listened quietly and didn't say a word. It wasn't until Yu Jing left that he said a word, "Smoked by a stinky man!" The spit was all over my face."

In the second half of the year, the most exciting part of the bridge arrived, and one person returned to Beijing: Xia Zhu!

Xia Zhu became the third envoy in 1038, responsible for the money and grain of the whole country of the Great Song Dynasty, so the good days began, and Xia Zhu's boutique life came into people's sight. If you want to say that a person with knowledge has taste, Xia Zhu enjoys it better than Yan Shu and Ouyang Xiu in any aspect, and as for other stupid things, it is not worth mentioning: clothing, food, housing, and transportation. (To be continued......)